Re: England Secure Test Series Win Over Tonga : Sat Nov 04, 2023 4:53 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

Harry Smith confirmed as man of the series. Chuffed for him on one hand, worried on the other. If I’m an NRL club watching that and I want a game manager to play alongside an explosive 1 and 6, I’m all over him.

That's the worry mate. I said some time ago that we need to extend his contract as a matter of urgency. However, whether that will be enough to see off the interest I seriously doubt unfortunately.

Re: England Secure Test Series Win Over Tonga : Sat Nov 04, 2023 4:58 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

Harry Smith confirmed as man of the series. Chuffed for him on one hand, worried on the other. If I’m an NRL club watching that and I want a game manager to play alongside an explosive 1 and 6, I’m all over him.

He’s very much on the NRLs radar.

Welsby Dodd Newman and Smith are the first names out of Journalists mouths when asked about SL talent.

Re: England Secure Test Series Win Over Tonga : Sat Nov 04, 2023 5:30 pm  

NSW wrote:

He’s very much on the NRLs radar.

Welsby Dodd Newman and Smith are the first names out of Journalists mouths when asked about SL talent.

I`m not so sure Dodd or Newman are ready for the NRL yet.
I think the other 2 yes and could see Knowles and possibly Lees going ok over there.

Re: England Secure Test Series Win Over Tonga : Sat Nov 04, 2023 6:47 pm  

Phuzzy wrote:

Utterly dominant performance across the board and on both sides of the ball. Smith absolutely outstanding in all 3 tests. If there's a better in-game kicker of the ball in world rugby I've yet to see them. That kick for the Newman try was another level. Not only that it came from unstructured play but to spot the opportunity and execute to that standard was truly exceptional.

Yeah, a Cooper Cronk special, that one! Mind now, Bevan did similar just a few weeks ago, didn't he? I thought Smith was MoM by a mile.

Re: England Secure Test Series Win Over Tonga : Sat Nov 04, 2023 6:52 pm  

Never seen Smith look as confident. It’s oozing out of him in all facets of his game. He’s looked in this series as though he’s a play ahead of everyone else.

Re: England Secure Test Series Win Over Tonga : Sat Nov 04, 2023 7:31 pm  

Whether you like Wane or not, agree with his comments or not you have to give him credit for that.

England look we’ll drilled and prepared to bust a fit for each other. He’s clearly got into the minds of Tonga and Woolf who’ve been out coached and out played.

I’ve seen a few comments saying Tonga are poor and we’d expect to beat them comfortably. That’s utter nonsense, they’re a team of primarily top class NRL talent. Commentary got it spot on today, they have not looked like a team, just a bunch of individuals. To a certain extent England didn’t let them but really there’s only one person to blame for that & he’s the coach.

Going forward for us we can add in Young, Farnworth, Wardle, KPP, Havard & Oledski along with the potential of too many to mention the future looks promising.

Re: England Secure Test Series Win Over Tonga : Sat Nov 04, 2023 7:56 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

Harry Smith confirmed as man of the series. Chuffed for him on one hand, worried on the other. If I’m an NRL club watching that and I want a game manager to play alongside an explosive 1 and 6, I’m all over him.

Think he has proved he is defensively capable aswell, not put afoot wrong in defence that i can recall again and fronted up against a very big tonga team chocked with NRL talent.

Is becoming a big worry of mine and hope for an announcement of a contract extension before the season starts

Re: England Secure Test Series Win Over Tonga : Sat Nov 04, 2023 9:22 pm  

Got worried when I saw on Instagram Toby Kings foot was in a boot…. Then I remembered

Re: England Secure Test Series Win Over Tonga : Sat Nov 04, 2023 9:41 pm  

BoredWiganer wrote:

Think he has proved he is defensively capable aswell, not put afoot wrong in defence that i can recall again and fronted up against a very big tonga team chocked with NRL talent.

Is becoming a big worry of mine and hope for an announcement of a contract extension before the season starts

I'm not sure we'll be able to keep all three of French, Field and Smith. How we use the marquee player rule is never made public although it seems pretty clear that Bevan takes up one of the slots. In an ideal world we would use the other two on Field and Smith but that would depend on whether or not they've been used on any other player in the squad. If we've offered Luke Thompson anything close to the figures that were reported in the media then we may have snookered ourselves.

Maybe we can make it work and it obviously depends on the career ambitions of the players but we may end up in a scenario where we can only choose two out of the three. That's a tough dilemma but I'd imagine the majority of Wigan fans would want Harry Smith to be one of the two if it came to that.

Re: England Secure Test Series Win Over Tonga : Sat Nov 04, 2023 10:06 pm  

NSW wrote:

He’s very much on the NRLs radar.

Welsby Dodd Newman and Smith are the first names out of Journalists mouths when asked about SL talent.

Just to add to this, they know Welsby is the jewel in SL crown and clubs will be queuing up for. But nothing from Welsby wanting to go.

Newman and Dodd it sounds like they want to go and their agents are shopping them to clubs.

With Smith his name has been mentioned as an option recently just because the journalists have noticed how well he’s playing (particularly GF). Given there is a half back crisis soon coming in the NRL they are paying attention to potential options.

Nothing from clubs wanting Smith or Smith wanting to go yet.